TiVo v Foxtel iQ2 - and the yellow jersey goes to . . .

Adam Turner | Jul 17, 2008 11:20 PM

After pitting TiVo and Foxtel's iQ2 against each other, Adam Turner has crowned a new PVR champion. Also, why PVRs are the ultimate accessory for watching the Tour de France.

Both Foxtel and TiVo are impressive devices, certainly Australia's best personal video recorders. Between bouts of iPhone mania I've posted separate reviews of the TiVo and iQ2 in the last week.

As I said a few weeks ago, TiVo and the iQ2 are almost equally matched as PVRs to the point where the decision really boils down to whether or not you want to subscribe to Foxtel.

Yes, I know both have ad-skipping disabled - it's a handy feature, but it's not the be-all and end-all. Yes, I know other PVRs are also media players. Yes, I know other PVRs are crippled because the networks don't share the EPG. The networks are bastards, I won't argue with that. Lets put their bastardry aside for a moment - plus the obvious fact that the iQ2 has access to more channels - and just judge the two on their core PVR features.

When judging PVRs, it all comes down to WAF - Wife Acceptance Factor. I know it's a bit of a sexist term, but it refers to a very real phenomenon. If your loved ones are unhappy with your PVR, your life will be miserable.

A PVR has to be relatively easy to use but, more importantly, it has to be reliable. In my lounge room the PVR is mission critical, especially during Le Tour de France. If Cadel takes honours on the Champs-Élysées and the lady of the house misses it because of a tech failure, there will be hell to pay.

The keys to a good PVR are flexible record times, intelligent overlap management and intelligent storage management. Get these features right and you've got the best chance of capturing all of the show you want to watch.

Get these wrong and you're setting yourself up for a life of angst and frustration. Both PVRs score well in these areas but, in every category, it's TiVo that comes out slightly in front.

Both TiVo and iQ2 let you create a recurring recording, in order to record the same show every week and check the EPG for schedule changes. On the TiVo it's called a Season Pass while on the iQ2 it's a Series Link. TiVo also lets you create a WishList, searching the EPG for shows according to actor, director, category, keyword or title.

iQ2 lets you create a global margin for error, adding 1, 2, 5 or 10 minutes to the start and end of every recording - a feature known as padding. By default the padding is set to auto, which adds 2 minutes before and after every recording. You can't customise this for individual recordings.

Of course in Australia even an extra 10 minutes isn't always enough in prime time, so the iQ2 still leaves you at risk of missing the end of a movie or your favourite show. This fact alone is enough to put TiVo ahead of the iQ2, as missing the end of programs is infuriating.

By default the TiVo automatically records for an extra 10 minutes during prime time, but it also lets you start recordings up to 10 minutes early and then run up to three hours over. This can be customised for each recording or Season Pass, so you don't waste precious hard drive space for shows you know run on time. The TiVo also asks you if you want to add extra padding to events flagged as Live in the EPG, such as sport.

Such flexibility cuts back on the amount of wasted recording time, which is important because of the TiVo's small hard drive. The inclusion of a 160GB drive would have to be my biggest gripe with the TiVo, but I'm hoping that someone will offer an easy way to drop in a bigger drive.

When it comes to overlap management, once again TiVo outshines the iQ2. If two programs overlap because of their padding, TiVo engages the second tuner. The iQ2 doesn't, it just slices the post-padding from the first program and the pre-padding from the second program, even though the second tuner lies idle.

If two programs overlap because of their padding and the second tuner is busy recording a movie, TiVo records all of the program with the highest priority (which can be set in the Season Pass manager). This of course means you miss the start or end of the other program.

If your shows are starting on time then the iQ2's habit of abandoning the padding is a better idea, but if you know a show starts on time then TiVo would let you customise the padding to compensate.

If your shows are starting late, TiVo has best chance of catching all of your favourite show - but perhaps missing the start of something else in the unlikely event you're recording two consecutive shows whilst using the second tuner to record something else. All things considered, the TiVo's approach to overlap management gives you the best chance of seeing all of your favourite shows.

TiVo also offers better storage management than the iQ2. The iQ2 automatically deletes the oldest recordings when it runs out of space, unless you've marked them to be kept. The TiVo goes one step further by letting you nominate how many episodes of a Season Pass to keep, which means it will be longer before it's forced to delete other recordings. Of course this is again offset by the TiVo's smaller hard drive.

There are plenty of other ways to compare PVRs but padding, overlap management and storage management are the three criteria that really count. TiVo isn't perfect, but it delivers the goods where it matters most.